Behind The Imp's Facade
by Peridot Tears
Summary: Yagyuu only then realized that -- behind Niou's impish smirks and hellish smiles -- there was someone who had let him have his own way; and only simple acts dragged that bald, selfless mind into light. Platinum Pair.


**_PT: I overheard a conversation the other night -- I hate eavesdropping on people's personal matters but they were screaming outside my window, underneath the tree. I hear a girl saying, half yelling, something along the lines of "I can't do this anymore...I'm tired of this..." and I managed to blank out for that moment, then I heard a guy protesting, pleading, and a door slamming. So that's how it happened. Today I just up and thought of it, here's my whimsical result. Enjoy._**

_Disclaimer: Seriously, it doesn't even have my name on it._

--

"I can't do this anymore," he said, feeling his dim sobs rise in hysteria. Sweeping aside his cool, cold facade. "I can. I _can't_." He felt his voice rising as he jerked back. "Let me go!"

But Niou kept his vice of a fist around Yagyuu's wrist, unwavering. He held -- clung -- with a look of pain across his face; his own chilly shell shucked off; with the aura of someone with every will in the world to explain. He truly looked as if he were in agony -- eyes glittering, the blood seeping out from between his lips. Remorseful. Concerned. Hurt.

The drop of oil that bred the fire. Hurt.

Yagyuu saw it all, felt his chest being ripped open slowly, the dagger to his heart. The tempest, flaring in his head, stamch an endless pit.

_But I don't care,_ he thought, before his vision blurred with the pinnacle of his agony. He really did it -- cheated on me and I was always trying to please him...!

He jerked again, as if his limbs were fueled by his thoughts. "Let go!"

"Hiroshi, hear me out!" There was a note of desperate pleading in Niou's voice as he grasped the other boy's wrist like a lifeling. He really did look as if he would cry now; in the dim light that filtered from the closest window above them, Yagyuu could see the sheen of liquid light that threatened to fall. For a moment his heart did begin collapsing in itself -- but the scene, somewhat maliciously, flitted back into his head again -- Niou, his lips on another person, a girl -- and he thought no further. He jerked back, his spirits blazing with anger and quivering with betrayal.

Niou's tears still had not fallen -- _because he's the Trickster, _Yagyuu reflected bitterly, _and he never _cries -- but he still pleaded.

"Hiroshi, I really didn't mean it!" -- then another look crossed his eyes; like he regretted saying it, and Yagyuu's mind was set.

"I can't do it," he said firmly, and jerked again -- the hand on his seemed to have slackened -- before turning, wiping it all from his mind -- that fleeting teardrop (a figment of his imagination?) that finally fell when he freed himself, the anguish that passed the enigmatic eyes, another hand reaching out too late --

He wiped it all away, clearing the slate and leaving it blank.

--

The funny thing -- in a twisted, almost sickeningly comical way -- was that Niou didn't make another attempt to keep him. Even after all his desperate efforts.

Because -- and Yagyuu had never realized this until later...much, much later -- Niou would never force him into anything. He had always let him step all over him, and when he had kissed another girl --

Only then had she told him that, with honest eyes that filled with remorse, it was because she had asked for it; she had cancer; and turned out to be Niou's brother's best friend; out of some sheer kindness that had appeared he had done it. The next day she had her surgery.

But once Yagyuu had lifted that blindfold of anger he only then was exposed to the guilt of feeling selfish. All those times Niou had let him do what he wished -- how some nights Yagyuu had to even break his promises to meet with him; homework, he had apologized, and he was forgiven -- even in tennis, when their opponent was too great and Yagyuu had gone forward without him, his partner had never minded. Only then did it come to mind that Niou had felt what he did was right, and so let him.

Yagyuu bitterly reprimanded himself -- what sort of partner was he, to be unable to see past those impish smirks and hellish grins?

--

So he presently stalked the halls of the school a week or two later, his resolve building up within his mind.

_Niou-kun, I'll apologize. And I'll make it up to you -- I will. I really will._

--

**_PT: I don't like how this turned out -_- -shot- But somehow I really didn't want to dump this 0_o I guess I'll just go work on my other Platinum fic now...hopefully with a better pace and better wording.... Constructive criticism is more than welcome._**


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